Cooking Demonstration: Kitty's Orange Cake -- 8th Floor Housewares

Loving to read as I do -- and not always having the time -- am enjoying a new found freedom here in Phoenix that allows me more time to dabble in my passion.  I've recently picked up a book written by Joanne Fluke called Key Lime Pie Murder -- the 9th book in her Hannah Swensen Mystery series.   

It resembles closely a Murder She Wrote mystery (one of my favorite television programs).   Hannah owns a shop in Lake Eden, Minnesota -- The Cookie Jar.  What more needs to be said?   An interesting quirk to Fluke's series are the recipes included at the end of some chapters.  Typically Hannah has made up said recipe somewhere throughout that chapter.  Not all are recipes for cookies -- she has a killer breakfast casserole in there that I tried, along with my first stab at popovers.  The casserole was amazing; my second try with the popovers was better than the first!  I noticed the recipe for Kitty's Orange Cake and wanted to try making that today.    

Seriously -- take a look at a couple of the main ingredients!   Who wouldn't want to make a cake out of those!  Rather than type out the recipe for you I ran over to wegottaeat.com  and copied / pasted it here for you.   

INGREDIENTS

1 box yellow cake mix

One package 3 ounces orange Jello (NOT sugar free)

1 cup orange juice

1 tsp. orange extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. orange zest

4 large eggs

1 cup (6 oz. pkg) mini chocolate morsels*

ORANGE FUDGE FROSTING:

2 Tbs. chilled butter

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp. orange extract

2 Tbs. orange juice

DIRECTIONS

1. Grease and flour a Bundt pan.  

2. Dump the cake mix in a large mixing bowl.  Mix in orange Jello powder.  Add the orange juice, orange extract, oil and orange zest.  Mix all ingredients together until they are well blended.

3. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.  Beat 2 minutes on medium speed with electric mixer.  Fold in the mini chocolate chips by hand.  Pour the cake batter into the pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes at 350.

4. Cool on a rack for 20 to 25 minutes.  Loosen the outside edges and middle and tip the cake out of the pan.  Let the cake cool completely on the rack. 

5. Make frosting by putting butter in the bottom of a 2 cup microwave safe bowl.  Add the chocolate chips; heat on HIGH for 60 seconds.

Stir to see if the chips are melted; repeat at 15 second intervals if they aren't.  

6. Add the orange extract and stir in; add the orange juice, tablespoon by tablespoon, stirring after each addition.

7. Pour frosting over the ridge of the cake, letting it run down the sides.  It will be thicker on top.  That's okay.  And if it's not, that's fine too. 

NOTE: *Don't even think of substituting regular chocolate chips for the mini-chips.  Doing so will cause the chips to sink to the bottom of the cake and you'll have a dickens of a time getting the cake out of the pan.

Being that I am who I am I followed the recipe pretty closely.   This is what happens when you give a "lick and a promise" to the "grease and flour a bundt pan" step -- a couple ugly spots on the top when I took it out of the pan after baking and cooling.  

At this stage of the game I did something ELSE that I typically do -- and that's reading a recipe and NOT paying attention to what I've read!   You'll notice that the instructions say to melt the butter and chocolate chips in the microwave!   And then you'll notice that I did NOT --  I did that step on the stove top.  Can't tell you if it made a difference or not, but it seemed to work out okay in spite of my error!  

My finished product!   Though I could have taken more time to make sure the frosting job was nicer -- more even all around -- it did manage to cover up my mistakes in the cake top itself.  

Let me tell you -- the frosting smells amazing!   It reminds me of one of those chocolate oranges that you can get around the holidays -- the chocolate that comes in the form of an orange.  Know the ones I mean?

  

Well, after another amazing dinner prepared by Daughter, we cut into that cake!  It was different than I had imagined -- the frosting was NOT overpowering at all.   Think maybe the orange juice cut the heavy chocolate taste some.  Very nice -- not light but very nice.  

Let me recommend both books and baking recipes to you!   I have thoroughly enjoyed them myself.   Am onto book #2 -- though am reading the series totally out of sequence.   Another thing I'm prone to do!   

Stop by your local library and check out one of Fluke's books -- if you are a Murder She Wrote lover like I am, these are sure to please!  Then take a moment and drop by my desk at Customer Service.  Let me know what you have baked up!   Happy reading AND happy baking!  

Home Accessories? Take the elevator to the 7th floor...

I will stress time and time again the fact that I'm a follower... a copier of things already designed.   My first blog post will show you that!   

My cross stitching days started a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... I digress!   Let's just say I started this particular hobby before the children were born.  I played around with it from time to time during the child rearing years but have just recently taken it back up in earnest.  

Youngest son is returning to college very soon.  Friends of ours there in the Knoxville area will pick him up at the airport and get him safely back to the campus.  Robin and I have been friends since our children were very little -- I wanted to send something back as a thank you.   Enter a November 26, 2011 post over at Appleseed Prim.  It's always a struggle for me when the Christmas decorations all come down and leave such bare spots throughout the house.   I saw this and immediately fell in love with it's simplicity and the generic value of it in terms of "winter" decorating.   It takes just a while longer to make two of them so immediately set to work.  

My first dilema came in the form of her "suggested threads" chart down below the pattern itself.   I searched (though not very hard) for a conversion from "Gentle Arts" to "DMC" threads to no avail.   So did the next best thing -- camped out in front of the DMC floss display at our local JoAnn's Store!   I came up with the following colors:  DMC 524, 3782, 902 and 500.   Must admit that I wasn't totally happy with my choice of 524 being that my background cloth is the color that it is but.... 

Second decision -- how to finish it off.   Thought a quick run to the local Good Will store might produce an adequate frame of some sort but my time is running short.   Robin and I enjoy a love for all things "country" so decided to make an old fashioned pin cushion for the both of us.   (Again, an example on Appleseed Prim can be found here.) 

A miniature pillow if you will -- easily done once fabric for the back was chosen -- fabric taken from my stash and NOT purchased -- thank you very much!  I cut out my stitched images making squares measuring 4 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches (1/4 inch given for my seam allowance).  Similar sized squares were cut from my green / tan homespun fabric for the backs.  It was just a matter of sewing the two fabrics together, leaving a small opening for turning the pillow right side out, and then stuffing them to my desired volume. 

Viola!   Just like that -- two winter shelf sitters!   And one more project finished up!   Opps... almost!  Being that it IS a pincushion, I thought it best to add a couple pins -- rusted pins to be exact!   Can't remember which site I ordered these from so will give credit to both of the sites seeing as how I have ordered from both of them!   Sew Many Prims site can be found here and then Leslie at The Farm Prims on Etsy -- they both have awesome product! NOW... one more project finished up properly!  

I would be VERY negligent in my duty if I didn't give credit where credit is due.  Appleseed Prim is one of the blogs that I follow pretty faithfully.   I love her ideas and her patterns -- a number of which are FREE!!!  You can't beat that with a stick.   Please hop on over there and see what she has to offer!  

So.. what do you think?  An appropriate shelf decoration for the both of us as we await the Valentines Day decor choices?  I thought so.... 

Not crafty?  No time?  Like to have one of your own?  Leave me a message at the Customer Service Desk!